Survival completed
by Bullfrog
Summary: Vader and the Emperor are dead. The second Deathstar has been destroyed. The war is won, but for the crew of one Rebel capital ship that was severally damaged in the climatic battle, the fight has just begun. The fight to survive.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:** While this story is my work and mostly my original characters, the Star Wars Universe and all contained within are not mine, therefore I have no right to profit monetarily or otherwise from it and with this story I am not. I have written this for you to enjoy free of charge, so enjoy. ---Bullfrog

SURVIVAL

BY: BULLFROG

CHAPTER 1

The sleek, long Corellian Engineering Corporation Corvette known by most as a Blockade Runner named Empire's End floated in space along with the rest of the Rebel Fleet that had amassed.

Inside Empire's End, its tall, powerfully built, brown and black haired Wookiee captain sat in his command chair thinking. It was a rare moment of complete silence on the ship's bridge. That's because everyone knew their orders, everyone knew what they would be doing and they knew what the odds against them where. The crew's nervous tension kept them silent and reflective on their own lives. Everyone knew that they would make the short hyperspace jump to the Endor System where the new Deathstar was in its final stages of construction. If all went according to plan, they would jump in just as the strike team, that had already landed on the forest moon, knocked out the Deathstar's shield generator. His ship along with the rest of the capital ships in the fleet would form a defensive perimeter around the starfighters and escort them, so they can get into the Deathstar's superstructure unmolested by the Empire's TIE fighters. Then, as soon as the fighters destroyed the Deathstar, they were all to run as fast as they could and jump back into hyperspace. There were very long odds against success against them indeed.

For his part, the Wookiee Captain Trebek was proud of his job. It was his crew that brought back the vital intelligence, which had been collected by now deceased Bothan spies, that Emperor Palpatine himself was overseeing the Deathstar's final stages of construction. He loved being with Rebel Alliance Intelligence, the sneaking into heavily fortified enemy areas, collecting intelligence that deep cover spies beam to his ship, turning TIEs and smaller Imperial capital ships that get too close into atoms floating in space and then beating the larger Star Destroyers in the race that ended in either Empire's End escaping to hyperspace or the destruction of the Empire's End and the death of all onboard.

He was also proud of his ship. Technically it belonged to the Rebel Alliance, but he considered Empire's End his Blockade Runner. The Blockade Runners were called that by the Rebels because of the ability that its model of Corellian Corvette gave the Alliance to elude capture by the Imperials. It had a very fast sublight drive which allowed it to move faster at sublight speeds then most capital class craft, and it had a very efficient hyperjump calculator, the combination of which allows for very quick escapes into hyperspace. While Corellian Corvettes were manufactured without weapon systems, Empire's End had been modified and boasted an impressive eight turbolasers; six laser cannons, and four ion cannons. His ship also had a standard shield generator which made it no match for a star destroyer but provided more then enough protection for the short skirmishes his crew tended to find themselves in with TIE fighters and smaller Imperial capital ships.

Trebek was also proud of himself. In more peaceful times, before the Empire, he had been the personal assistant to the Senator from Kashyyyk. When the Emperor dissolved the Galatic Senate he had escaped the arrest and execution of many of the Senators and their staffs by signing on with a Rodian smuggler. One run brought the smuggling team close to Kashyyyk and Trebek talked his partner into stopping on his home world so that he could visit the wife and children he hadn't seen in over two years. On this visit he had learned that his family, including his terminally ill mother, had been picked up on an imperial slaving raid and sold into bondage. The atrocities of the Empire having hit home, he parted ways with his partner on friendly terms, sought out the Rebellion and enlisted enthusiastically. The Rebellion's military commanders quickly saw leadership potential in Trebek and promoted him to Deputy Captain aboard one of its intelligence vessels called Empire's End. When it's human captain was promoted farther up the chain of command, Trebek himself was promoted to captain and now here he was in what he was sure would become one of the most historically significant battles of the Rebellion regardless of who won the day.

Trebek was brought back to reality when he heard the commander of the starfighters Lando Calrissian over the comm. saying, "Admiral we are in position. All fighters accounted for."

Admiral Ackbar, the Mon Calamari fleet commander answered over the comm. from his flagship Home One, answered, "Proceed with the countdown. All groups assume attack coordinates. All craft prepare to jump into hyperspace on my mark."

Empire's End's group commander had previously ordered the group into attack coordinates so Trebek roared his orders and the 8D8 droid that had been modified to translate for him translated, "Pilots begin count down, astrogator feed jump coordinates to the navacomputer on the Admiral's mark."

Empire's End's two on duty pilots and on duty astrogator responded affirmatively and Trebek sat back in his command chair. Before he knew it, the stars began to appear longer, then even longer, and before he knew it they appeared to be in a black tunnel with bright streaks on it.

The jump was short, only about fifteen minutes, then the Rebel Fleet reverted back to realspace. The Imperial TIE fighters on patrol were fatally slow to respond due to the surprise nature of the rebels' appearance. Turbolasers and laser cannons from every capital ship in the rebel fleet open fired and within seconds not a single TIE remained. The Empire's End crew cheered at the smooth running of the first stage of the battle plan even if it was the easiest part.

It didn't take long for the Imperials' surprise to wear off and hundreds of TIE fighters began pouring from the assembled Star Destroyers and the real fighting began.

Trebek no longer sat in his command chair, but stood at the end of the bridge's command balcony, watching the starfighters fly past the capital ships and towards their target. For a brief moment he wished his communications system was patched into the frequency used by the fighter pilots. He would have loved to hear the conversations of men rushing into combat in small one man ships whose sole purpose was to get to the heart of the engagement where the heat really was. He loved his position, and Empire's End has seen more then its fair share of combat running intelligence that had been gathered by Rebel spies, but sitting in his command chair he felt removed from the real fighting. During his time with the Rebellion he had never even fired a gun. He often found himself envying his fellow Wookiee, Chewbacca, who had gained fame on the Millennium Falcon and was at this moment on the surface of Endor's forest moon engaged in the fighting, which the rest of this mission rested on.

Instead of stating these thoughts he looked to his Cerean Deputy Captain Ki-Am-Humli and roared, the 8D8 translator droid translated, "He says why is it that only the TIEs are attacking? What are those Star Destroyers waiting for?"

Ki-Am-Humli, who looked almost human except for his elongated cone shaped head, rubbed his black goatee unconsciously, as he always did when deep in thought, and answered, "I don't know, but I have a feeling we are not going to like the answer."

The fighting continued and Trebek noticed that the fighters trying to enter the Deathstar's superstructure were being destroyed. This time he growled and the 8D8 translated, "He says the shield is still up."

Ki-Am-Humli nodded his head but said nothing.

The fighting raged all around them. Empire's End's gunnery crew once again proved how good they were at burning TIE after TIE out of existence. The TIEs however scored their fair share of hits on Empire's End. With each noticeable hit, Captain Trebek roared and the 8D8 translated to the ship's engineering area, over the internal comm. system, inquiring as to the shield's status. Each time Lieutenant Eldet Kembes, the human chief engineer responded that the shields were holding steadily.

Then unexpectedly, the dynamics of the battle changed. A blindingly bright burst of laser fire erupted unexpectedly from the supposedly nonfunctional Death Star and a rebel capital ship, larger then Empire's End, just disappeared, no noticeable debris left at all.

Trebek roared again, more to himself then anyone else and the 8D8 faithfully translated, "He says that that blast came from the Deathstar."

Ki-Am-Humli gave the droid a nasty look and said sarcastically, "That much we didn't need a translation for. I think everyone in the fleet now knows that thing is operational."

Not even a second passed before Admiral Ackbar's voice came over the comm. saying, "All craft prepare to retreat."

Trebek growled and 8D8 relayed Ackbar's orders to the pilots and astrogator.

Lando's voice was once again on the comm. saying, "We won't get another chance at this admiral."

Ackbar responded by saying, "We have no choice General Calrissian. Our cruisers can't repel firepower of that magnitude."

Silently Trebek agreed and for the first time since taking command, he felt a hopeless fear.

General Calrissian argued on, "Han will have that shield down. We have to give him more time."

In his head, Trebek begged Admiral Ackbar to retreat. The battle plan never took into account a Deathstar with a functional laser that was able to destroy a planet with one shot. He wanted more then anything to join the argument but, as a lowly ship's captain, he would have been out of order if he had. If his group commander wanted to have input to this conversation she would have been within her rights, but not a ship's captain. It was obvious, however, that the strike team's mission to destroy the shield generator had failed.

In a voice that sounded like what he was saying when against his better judgment, Admiral Ackbar said, "All ships belay my last order."

In a loud moaning, roar Trebek rescinded his last order and ordered Empire's End back into the fight.

Just then, his ship shook so badly that it almost convulsed. Trebek roared viciously and his 8D8 translated, "Tactical! What was that?"

The five beings, all of differing species, that stood around the tactical table with a three dimensional holographic display of the battle unfolding around them all looked at their captain. A Bith answered, "When we were all distracted by the Deathstar firing, a Star Destroyer moved into firing range on our left flank. That sir, was what a full broadside from a Star Destroyer feels like."

A holographic display of Lt. Kembes appeared and Trebek turned to face it. The hologram said, "Sir, our shield generator is burned out from that last hit. We are sitting naked sir, completely vulnerable."

Trebek roared again and 8D8 translated, "Well, get it fixed now you hairless Ewok. Turbolasers, laser cannons and ion cannons concentrate all fire on that star destroyer. Pilots get us clear of it."

The translation took too long for the droid to get out. As soon as he finished, the ship convulsed again and Captain Trebek's vision went black.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

When the second Star Destroyer broadside hit, Ki-Am-Humli felt himself thrown out of his command chair. He felt himself land on the floor and then the crushing weight of the chair he had just been in come down on top of him. That itself was a testament to the power of the Imperial starship considering that the chair had been bolted to the floor and not just sitting there. After a few seconds of fuzziness and confusion, he pushed his command chair off of himself and regained his feet and looked around at the carnage on the bridge.

Instantly his lungs protested in coughing spasms against the smoke, which was thick enough to distort and severally limit his vision. He felt blood running down his face from a gash somewhere on his head.

"Captain Trebek?" Ki-Am-Humli asked. He looked around, as much as he could with the thick smoke that filled the bridge, but the Wookiee was nowhere to be seen.

"Has anyone seen the captain?" He asked in a much louder voice. Several "No sirs" along with moans and cries of pain answered him.

Having no choice but to assume that Captain Trebek had been killed, or in some other way incapacitated, Ki-Am-Humli announced, "Until further notice I am in command of this ship by my own authority. Now, get the ventors going and get this smoke out of my bridge."

Since the blockade runner's bridge was in the front of the ship, the designers were able to add ventilation units into it's walls, which in a situation like this could be activated and pump the smoke, chemical or whatever threatened the bridge crew into the abyss of space. The ventors started up and the air in the bridge quickly became breathable and everyone's vision improved.

Once he was able to fully survey the damage on the bridge, a part of Ki-Am-Humli wished that the smoke would come back. From all appearances, a good three quarters of his bridge crew was down and either not moving or down and crying in pain. He looked around the command balcony, saw the crumpled remains of Trebek's 8D8 droid and again asked in a loud voice, "Has anyone seen Captain Trebek?"

"Down here sir." Came a reply from below.

Ki-Am-Humli walked over to where Trebek had been standing, put his hands on the railing and looked down. He saw the captain laying motionless, almost as if he was sleeping. Only if he had been sleeping, there wouldn't have been a steadily growing puddle of blood under him.

"Get a medical droid up here right away." The acting captain said. He looked at the rest of the injured and said, "Better make that a lot of the 21B medical droids."

He then turned to his bridge's damage assessment team, which was located behind the command chairs and asked, "Where was all of that smoke coming from?"

A human sitting at the board answered, "We have fires all over the ship sir."

Humli continued, "Why haven't the fire suppression systems taken care of them?"

The human answered, "They appear to be offline sir."

Placing getting the fires out as his main priority, Humli walked back over to his command chair and hit the internal comm. button to the infantry quarters but was answered by a signal that meant the ship's internal communication system was down.

His frustration showed in his voice as Ki-Am-Humli ordered, "Someone send a droid to get Colonel Tuster's men fighting those fires and send another to get Lt. Kembes up here now."

The TI-06 (6th model of the translation and interpretation droid series) moved as stiffly as, and sounded very much like C-3PO. It's model had a weaponless body that was similar in design to the IG-88 series and it's head looked similar to the cockpit of the Imperial AT-ATs. TI droids had a programming similar to protocol droids, only instead of being programmed with the finer aspects of propriety for various cultures, the TI had been programmed with a knowledge of various subtleties of the cultures that might influence the meaning of a communication. This programming allowed the TI to give a more accurate interpretation of intercepted transmissions, data and so forth than a literal word for word translation might be able to supply. In addition to it's cultural database, TI series droids were programmed with a comparable language database to what protocol and translation droids had.

When TI-06 arrived to Empire's End's crew quarters from the bridge, the ship's infantry complement was hard at work fighting the fires in that area of the ship with handheld fire suppressors. Many of them were down due to smoke inhalation since they were dressed to repel boarders and not to fight fires. That gear had made since to Colonel Valdar Tuster, the rough looking and powerfully built human infantry commander aboard the Empire's End, since they were in a combat situation. The dire situation that their ship was in came as such a surprise that his men had to get to work fighting fires immediately and didn't have time to don the appropriate firefighting gear to protect their lungs and flesh.

Seemingly clueless as to what was going on around it, TI-06 found Colonel Tuster, and as Captain Humli had ordered it to, reported, "Colonel Tuster. Captain Trebek has been injured sir."

Continuing to spray his suppressor, Tuster didn't even look at TI-06 when he said, "I'm a little busy here."

Nonplussed, TI-06 continued, "Acting Captain Ki-Am-Humli has assumed command and orders you and your men to extinguish the fires that are all over the ship."

Failing to hide his annoyance at the droid, Tuster stopped fighting the fire to look at TI-06. After a second he asked sarcastically, "What does it look like we are trying to do?"

"There is no need to be short tempered and rude sir. I'm just fulfilling my order to bring your orders to you since the ship's internal comm. system is down. It isn't my fault that you acted on your own and carried out your orders before I could arrive and relay them to you." TI-06 replied.

Tuster looked at a Whiphid soldier and said, "Shut him up." He then went back to fighting the fire.

Without missing a beat, the Whiphid picked up TI-06 over his head and threw it into the fire. Failing to realize the danger that it was in, TI-06 stood up and looked at the Whiphid saying, "That was not called for. All I…" Before the droid could finish what it was saying, it's melting internal workings caused it to shut down permanently.

The infantry commander looked at the Whiphid and said, "I meant shut it down." Then shrugging added, "But that works."

On the bridge, Humli walked around and watched the 21B medical droids and non-droids medical emergency teams try to stabilize and save as many of the bridge crew as they could.

Having similarly been summoned by a TI-06, Senior Lieutenant Eldet Kembes, who was Empire's End's chief engineer, arrived and immediately reported to Ki-Am-Humli.

"What kind of shape are we in Eldet?" The acting Captain asked.

"Sir, I'm sorry to report that we are a dead stick." Kembes answered.

Humli said sharply, "I don't have time for games of vagueness Lieutenant. I need you to give me details or get someone up here who can. How are our shields, life support and artificial gravity holding up?"

Chagrined by the tone of his superior's voice, Kembes answered, "Sir. Our shields are gone. We are far enough from the sun that we are safe from radiation, and as long as we don't get fired on anymore, or rammed by any ships we should be fine. Our life support and our artificial gravity are both ok for now."

"Aaaaaaaaand," Humli said impatiently, "How are the rest of our systems? Eldet, I don't have time to drag everything out of you. Tell me what I need to know or I promise you that I will replace you with someone more competent."

"Sir. I don't know anymore at this time. We were working on finding that out when the TI showed up. I'm not trying to be evasive with you sir, there is a lot wrong with the ship, after the pounding that we took, and I simply have not had the time to find out exactly what's broke." Kembes replied, a little more sharply than he meant to.

Humli lowered his head, sighed and said sounding almost defeated, "I'm sorry Eldet. I didn't mean to be like that. I just don't know what's going on. I never expected that we would be hit this badly all at once."

"Sir. May I make one observation?"

"Go ahead."

"Sir. When I was in the Imperial Academy, one thing we were taught, actually they drilled it into us, is that a ship's captain is a force to be feared and someone to be looked up to. He knows everything to do, in all situations, at all times. Never admit that you don't know something. The crew's confidence in you will be ruined and it will destroy moral faster than a proton torpedo." Kembes said, sounding more fatherly than a subordinate should.

Not having taken offense to what Eldet Kembes said or how he had said it, Ki-Am-Humli shook his head and said more calmly, "You're right. Do this, go back to Engineering and report back to me whatever you find out as soon as you find it. Internal communications appear to be down, for how long I don't know. So until we get them back, you'll have to send a runner with updates, but do it because I want them right away. Any questions?"

Sensing that he had been dismissed, Kembes said, "Yes sir. Right away sir." He then disappeared from the bridge.

Ki-Am-Humli marched purposefully across the bridge to the communications center where an Ugnaught sat furiously working the controls. The communications center was usually manned by two crew members. However, the Gungan that had been sitting in the other seat now laid lifeless, slumped over his console. Blood was dripping out of the Ugnaught's uniform sleeve, and she was in obvious discomfort from an injury to her right leg, but she manned her station regardless and soldiered admirably on.

Without preamble, the acting Captain said, "Please tell me that we have communication with the fleet."

The Ugnaught stopped what she was doing and looked at Humli. A second passed before she answered, "No sir. I'm sorry to report that we don't. I can't even get a distress signal out."

"Is it fixable?" Humli asked.

Annoyed, the Ugnaught answered rather flippantly, "Sir, I'm not an engineering technician. If you need something encrypted, you come to me. If you need something repaired, I'm just as lost as you are."

Picking up on the communication specialist's tone and not caring for it, the acting Captain replied with an icy tone, "I am your Captain. If you have something to say to me, you will speak respectfully and watch your attitude. If you don't you are better off trying to raid a Rancor nest on Dathomir." He paused and then continued more friendly, "Keep trying. If anything manages to go through, either sending or receiving, let me know right away."

"Yes sir." The Ugnaught replied formally.

Ki-Am-Humli then began walking among the dead and injured. He closed the eyes of the dead, offered assurances of recovery to the wounded, and spoke confidently to those who, like him, had managed to avoid serious injury. A pang of discouragement shot through him each time a medical team left the bridge carrying a body on a gurney to sickbay. At this point they were only taking the living, in hopes of keeping them alive, and Ki-Am-Humli took a slight encouragement in the fact that Captain Trebek had been the first to be removed. However, alive or not, each crew member that was too badly injured to do their job was one less crew member that he had to help him get things back under control.

Senior Lieutenant Eldet Kembes was highly agitated when he returned to the engineering section. He considered himself a very competent chief engineer and to be called otherwise infuriated him. Kembes didn't care if Ki-Am-Humli was under an unusually high amount of stress. So was everyone onboard that was still alive and uninjured enough to realize what was going on. The chief engineer prepare himself to deal with his subordinates, without allowing his raised stress level to cause him to snap at them.

The Mon Calamari, who served as Kembes's second in command of engineering asked, "What did the boss what?"

"Ah, just your standard over management Tolem. Just looking over shoulders when he doesn't need to. How's it going here?"

"Well, I've just finished a complete system scan. Our power cells haven't been damaged. Our life support is functional, but it has been damaged so I can't say with any certainty how long we can count on it. We have hull breeches on the recreation deck and in the mess hall, both of which are open to vacuum. All communications, ship to ship as well as internal, are down, and might not be able to be repaired. The automatic fire suppression systems are shot and we have fires all over the ship. Those however, seem to be slowly decreasing. My bet on that is that some of the survivors didn't want to burn to death and are fighting them with hand held suppressors. Our shields are out and our weapons are down. Artificial gravity is holding but once again, I wouldn't want to be quoted on how long that will last."

Kembes sighed heavily, sat down at his desk and said to the Mon Calamari, "Ok, send someone with that information to brief Captain Ki-Am-Humli and then come back here. With so much wrong, we need to approach this in an orderly fashion. Prioritize what gets repaired when.

Hours later, after the fires were out, after the injured had been stabilized and the Battle of Endor was over, Ki-Am-Humli sat in his personal office looking at the reports of manpower, needed repairs, and surviving equipment and stores that had come in. All of which painted a bleak picture for the crew of Empire's End.

Empire's End was classified as an intelligence ship and therefore it was assumed that if anything had happened to it, it would have been far behind enemy lines and therefore the crew would be unrecoverable, thereby they were considered expendable. That being the case, the Alliance's military leadership saw fit to replace the ship's escape pods with a state of the art sensor suite.

Reflecting on this, Ki-Am-Humli thought, _Command probably thinks that we are just one of the many ships today that were lost with all hands and therefore won't send a rescue shuttle to investigate. There are more than likely other ships that have been able to call for help that will keep them busy._ _I can't even put people into escape pods to get word to them that there are survivors onboard. I really don't know what to do next._


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Ki-Am-Humli spent a sleepless night pondering the Empire's End's situation. His thoughts were as far from hopeful as they could be.

Early the next morning, a haggard looking and unshaved Humli called a meeting of all ship's officers. As each officer came into the bridge's situation room, Empire's End's acting Captain had one repeating thought, _By Sith, they look as bad as I feel. My officers must have spent the night pacing their quarters just as I did._

Once all of the living and not seriously injured ship's officers were present and accounted for, Ki-Am-Humli cleared his throat and said, "Thank you everyone for coming. I know that you all have literally a hundred things that you could be doing and probably a million of disorderly thoughts running through your head."

He paused and took a minute to look each of the assembled officers in the eyes and continued, "First things first. Until Captain Trebek is back on his feet, I have assumed command, as is my right. Also, as per my rights as acting Captain, I am going to name an acting Deputy Captain. Based upon the calmness and courage in his actions and initiative yesterday immediately after we were hit, I'm naming Colonel Valdar Tuster to that post. Deputy Captain Tuster, I will leave it up to you to name your own relief, just make sure that he or she realizes that it is only a temporary promotion. Upon either Captain Trebek recovering and returning to active service or our rescue, each of us will immediately return to our previous rank. That is unless Command needs any of our acting ranks on a different ship and decides to make them official."

Humli paused again to give each of the assembled officers time to digest what he had just said, especially acting Deputy Captain Tuster, whose natural demeanor was so stoic that it was hard to know what was going through his head.

Then he continued, "Now. In our current situation we run the risk of cabin fever developing in the enlisted ranks. I don't mean that literally, but we can expect problems with discipline. When this is all said and done, each of us, from the most senior officer to the lowest ranking enlisted man, will be assigned to different ships. When that happens I don't want to export any behavioral problems that will reflect poorly on each of us as officers. Therefore, it is important that each of us not give into the temptation to coddle those under us. Proper military customs, courtesies and discipline will be maintained throughout this crisis."

Another pause and Ki-Am-Humli continued, "Senior Lieutenant Kembes. What is our current situation? System, structurally and mechanically speaking?"

Clearing his throat, Eldet Kembes answered, "Well sir, as you know ship to ship, ship to ground and internal ship communications are completely down. We are working on repairing them, but the damage is extensive and if we are able to make the repairs without a gravity dock, it will take a long time. However, we have had some minimal success with handheld communicators."

Acting Deputy Captain Tuster cocked his head slightly to the side and asked, "Minimal success? What do you mean by that?"

Kembes answered by saying, "We have been able to use them about twenty-five percent, maybe a little less, of the times that we've tried."

Eldet waited a second for more questions or comments on that particular point. When none came, he continued, "Empire's End's structural integrity is solid. The only areas where we have a hull breach are in the recreation deck and mess hall. Those are both open to vacuum and are going to require a gravity dock to repair. Its just something that we are not equipped to fix."

Another pause and before Kembes could continue, Ki-Am-Humli said, "I want those sealed off. The last thing I want is for an unexpecting crewmember to stumble into the rec deck for a game of sabacc or dejarik just to find themselves flushed out of the ship."

"I've already taken care of that sir." Kembes answered.

Ki-Am-Humli nodded his head in approval and turning his attention to his new deputy said, "I want troops, dressed in EV suits, to go into the mess hall and pull out whatever rations and food stuffs that have survived. Have the infantry to store them in their area. We will work up some sort of rationing plan later so that no one starves before we can get ourselves rescued."

"Yes sir." Valdar Tuster replied.

Sensing that it was ok to continue, Eldet said, "Our hyperdrive is down, our navacomputer is likewise down. Our engines are shot as well as are our maneuvering thrusters. All of these are going to require a gravity dock. We are able to make a few minor repairs to those, but as extensive as the damage is, we are simply not equipped to fix them."

He paused again to look at the notes he had prepared for the meeting and continued, "Our shields are down, which leaves us open to being hit and further damaged by the debris floating around out there that were created by the battle. We are trying to come up with a way to bring the shields back up, however, so far we haven't been able to come up with a way to do so without crashing some other vital system."

"Empire's End's general computer network is operating at about forty percent, but we need it to be a minimum of sixty-five percent to send a nonverbal distress signal. We are trying to bring it up, but it, like everything else right now is proving to be more difficult than we imagined." Kembes continued.

Then shrugging he concluded, "Everything else I've informed you of already sir. Unless there are any questions, I have nothing else to report."

From the officer's point of view, life onboard Empire's End was getting back to normal. Well, as normal as it could given the circumstances. Most of the enlisted crewmembers didn't see eye to eye with them on that.

Tem-Esay, a Gran infantry sergeant sat in his quarters with his roommates Willat Tamber, an Aqualish engineer, and Tasook, a Shistavanan engineer. When the Battle of Endor began, there were four of them but their other roommate, a Duros who was one of Empire's End's gunners. When the ship had been hit by the two Star Destroyer broadsides, he had been at his station. He died fighting for what he believed in.

"Fix this, fix that, run over here and fix this while you are fixing the other two things. When are they going to realize that most of this ship is beyond our ability to repair? We can't, and we won't, get it back under its own power." Willat said, almost pouting.

"If we are going to get off this ship, the brass needs to think outside of the official box. They, however, seem to be incapable of that and they won't listen to our ideas. As if, just because we aren't officers, we aren't worth the breath it takes to speak." Tasook agreed.

Shaking is oddly shaped head Tem-Esay said, "The point is, the battle is over. We don't know if we won or lost, but it is over. What the officers are not realizing is that, until someone happens into us, we are not getting off of this ship. We are stuck here. So the sooner that those at the top loose their, 'Unga me officer, you stupid enlisted man,' worldview, the better off everyone is."

"You don't think that my idea of creating a message pod to let the troops on Endor know that we are still alive will work?" Willat asked.

"First of all, let's think about it this way. We are out of Endor's orbit. So if we just release it out of the rec deck or the mess hall, its only going to float away and continue orbiting the moon in this orbit." Tem-Esay said flatly.

"Ok, well, we could put it under power." Willat defended his idea.

"What are you going to use to put it under it's own power? A droid motor? Even if you did rig a droid motor to work, how are you going to give it the directional thrust that it would need to make it to the moon? We don't have any available parts like that onboard the ship. This was suppose to happen deep inside Empire held space and Alliance command intended for us to suck it up and die like good little soldiers."

Tem-Esay's point had been made and Willat's silence acknowledged that fact, but Tem-Esay wasn't done. He said, "And even if you could give it thrust, how would you shield it against the Forrest Moon's atmosphere? It would burn upon entry."

The Gran paused to give that point time to sink in and then continued by saying, "And even if you did get it through the atmosphere in tact, who would be on the other end to receive it? We don't know who won the battle. We don't know who won the war. As far as we know, it is Imperial troops down there doing mop up sweeps and not our guys. If that's the case, I'd rather die up here than at the hands of one of the Emperor's Interrogator Droids down there."

Tasook looked at Tem-Esay and challenged, "You're talking awfully pessimistic. If I didn't know better, I'd think you thought we weren't going to get off of here. That we are all going to die here."

Tem-Esay just shrugged and replied nonchalantly, "I admit that it is possible that someone might just happen by and say, 'Hmmm, look at that. A capital ship that was shot up in the battle. I don't know why, but I think that there might be people alive on it. Out of all of the ruined ships floating around out here, I think that is the only one where people survived and were abandoned.'"

He paused for dramatic effect and then continued in the same nonchalant tone, "But I don't think so. I think that we are going to have to drop the pretense that we are a military vessel. We are now an orbital society in the Endor System. Societies don't have officers and enlisted men. Orbital societies don't worry about trying to get their station into motion. Societies are populated by equals, sure they have leaders, but everyone is equal. Orbital societies worry about things like artificial gravity and life support. That's what we should be worrying about. Instead of trying to get sublight communications back up we should be taking all of the usable parts from the unrepairable and nonvital systems and convert them to use in keeping the vital systems working."

The Gran paused again and then concluded, "No. I don't think we are going to get off of this station. And it sure isn't business as usual. But what we can do is survive up here for a very long time, that's if we are smart about what we do."

As Tem-Esay started to spread his discontent, Ki-Am-Humli stood in sickbay looking at the unconscious, almost dead looking, body of Trebek.

He thought, _Come on Captain. Hurry back to us. We both know who Empire's End's true captain is, and it isn't me. I'm just playing a game that I'm not ready to play. You'd know the right things to do, I don't._

One of the two nurses of Empire's End, a feline looking Tagorian female, walked up and stood beside Captain Humli.

After a few seconds of looking at their fallen captain herself, the nurse said in a well practiced bedside voice, "Sad isn't it sir." It was more of an observation than a question.

"Yes, yes it is." Ki-Am-Humli replied.

"He was a good man." The Tagorian said.

Humli fixed the nurse with an icy look and replied, "He is a good man you mean. He's not dead yet, and I don't want to ever hear anyone refer to him in the past tense while he is still alive. If I do, they'd be better off camping in the Dune Sea without water, tent, food or a blaster. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir." The nurse replied snippily and walked away.

The Captain then walked around sickbay, walking by the 21B medical droids and the beds with enlisted crewmembers. He stopped at every bed containing an officer and spoke a few words of encouragement to the ones that were conscious, but didn't even acknowledge the existence of the enlisted crewmembers. After making his visiting round, Ki-Am-Humli left.

Once he was gone, the Tagorian nurse walked up to the ship's hammerheaded Ithorian doctor and asked, "Did you notice that he didn't so much as say hi to any of then enlisted personnel?"

The doctor, who was an officer, looked at the enlisted nurse and nodded his head saying, "Yes. That was wrong of him."

The Tagorian replied without bothering to hide to contempt in her voice, "That is no way to treat those who were wounded fighting for a brighter future. The only thing keeping some of these beings alive is a strong will to live. How are they suppose to maintain that when their commanding officer is blasting away at their morale by treating them as if they didn't exist. That man shouldn't be in command. He doesn't have what it takes."

In the engineering wing of Empire's End, Eldet Kembes sat at his desk going over the maintenance and repair reports that had been generated during the previous twenty four hours. There were a lot of them, and the news wasn't good. Mostly he read, unable to repair due to lack of proper equipment, and this repair is impossible without a gravity dock. Reading these reports convinced Eldet of what he had already known in his gut, the Empire's End was dead. A gravity dock would spend less time and credits in scraping her and using the parts on ships that hadn't been damaged as heavily and in the construction of new war ships.

The thought of all of the usable parts of Empire's End being removed and the rest of her coming to rest in one of the orbital boneyards depressed Eldet more than most of the rest of the crew. This was because Empire's End was the only home that he had.

Before joining the Rebel Alliance, Kembes had been the Vice President of Engineering for Travelex, which was one of Alderaan's most successful luxury spacelines. When Bail Organa wanted to take his family on a restful, pleasure cruise, Travelex was the only major spaceline that he would use. If Travelex didn't have any thing departing when it suited his plans, Bail would simply rearrange his travel plans until the next Travelex ship was due to depart instead of traveling with another line.

As with most Alderaanians, Eldet was a very strong Rebel sympathizer, but those sympathies were not enough to make him leave his cushy lifestyle. Eldet had an income that was greater than what most Alderaanians made and he had a nice clean job since the Vice President of Engineering didn't climb into reactor cores to make repairs himself. He had a wife and three sons that he adored more than anything else. As with most of Alderaan's upper crust, Kembes didn't consider running off and fighting for galactic freedom worth giving up everything that he had.

When Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader came knocking on Alderaan's door with the first Deathstar, Eldet had been safely away from Alderaan on the maiden voyage of Travelex's newest star liner. For the passengers that had paid enormous sums of credits, it was a pleasure cruise, however for Kembes it had been a working trip, so as always, his family had stayed behind on Alderaan.

The passengers and crew members didn't know that they didn't have a home to return to until a month after the Battle of Yavin. The sad task of notifying so many people that Alderaan no longer existed fell to Princess Leia Organa, another displaced Alderaanian. She had arrived on the Millennium Falcon on a duel mission. First, to brake the news to so many people that their families, their friends, and everyone that they have ever known were now dead. Second, she was to recruit as many of them as she could into the Rebel Alliance. Eldet Kembes, along with the entire crew and the vast majority of the passengers became Rebels that day.

Empire's End had been Kembes's first and only assignment during his time with the Alliance. He found the prospect of loosing her as terrifying as he did the realization that he would never see his family or even Alderaan ever again.

Eldet had been reflecting on this and what his future would hold for him and was in a foul and depressed state of mind when an enlisted Gungan engineer, wearing a grease and grim covered uniform, came to him and said, "Sirsa. Mesa sorry to reporta that getting thesa scanners for de hull plating ona line willsa take moresa time dan Isa wasa allotted."

In his entire career, first as a civilian and then as a Rebel, Eldet had never lost his composure. His natural demeanor was calm and collected, but his mind wasn't in a place that was natural for him. That was why he snapped, "How stupid do you have to be to come to me and say that? Huh?"

Taken aback the Gungan cringed and answered with an amazing lack of confidence, "Sirsa? Mesa simply didn't havea enough timea. If yousa would grant mesa an extension, mesa willsa have it done."

Kembes had always disliked Gungans. It wasn't out of a sense of species superiority, it was just that every Gungan that he had ever known tended to annoy him. That combined with his already unstable mood caused his temper to hit its ignition temperature and he exploded, "I'M HEARING A LOT OF EXCUSES BUT I'M SEEING VERY FEW RESULTS! I'M TRYING TO GET THIS SHIP BACK UP AND GOING SO WE CAN LIVE! SO WE CAN LIVE! IT'S STARTING TO BECOME OBVIOUS THAT IF WE ARE GOING TO MAKE IT OUT OF THIS ALIVE, I'M GOING TO HAVE TO DO IT ALL MYSELF. NOW ALL OF YOU! AND I DO MEAN ALL OF YOU. GET BACK TO WORK AND I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY MORE EXCUSES FROM ANY OF YOU! FROM ANY OF YOU! THE NEXT TIME ANYONE SAYS ANYTHING TO ME, IT HAD BETTER BE HOW FAST THEY GOT THEIR WORK DONE AND HOW MUCH OF A PLEASURE IT HAVE A SMALL PART IN SAVING ALL OF OUR LIVES!"

Then, still in his rage, Senior Lieutenant Eldet Kembes of the Rebel Alliance Armed Forces rocketed out of his seat and stormed out of the engineering area. In his wake, there wasn't anything but stunned silence over his unexpected and uncharacteristic outburst.

After a few minutes of no one saying a word or moving a muscle, the Gungan said, with his own anger showing on his face and in his voice, "Mesa no seen hima pickin up asa Hydrospanner, Fusioncutter or asa Power Calibrator ana getten dirty. Hesa probably no know how to operate asa Beamdrill or asa Glow Rod. Hesa not so smart. Hesa bada boss."

As the days went by, everyone's stress level rose to the highest that most of the crew of Empire's End had ever experienced. This resulted in short tempers among the crew members and even shorter tempers of the officers who were being pressed hard by Ki-Am-Humli for results. Although there weren't any outright acts of insubordination, the enlisted crewmembers developed plenty of hard feelings towards their officers and the chasm between the classes of crewmember grew wider and wider.

Deputy Captain Valdar Tuster sat in the same chair, which had been reattached to the floor, that Ki-Am-Humli had been sitting in when Empire's End entered the Battle of Endor. Ki-Am-Humli sat in the command chair, which Trebek's injuries had forced him to unknowingly vacate.

Tuster looked at his Captain and said, "Sir. I've been thinking about something."

Meeting his Deputy's look, Ki-Am-Humli replied conversationally, "So, lets here it."

Hesitantly, Tuster responded, "Sir. I have been hearing of some….unrest among the enlisted members of our crew. Dissatisfaction with our leadership so to speak. We are in very unusual circumstances and unusual circumstances call for unusual measures. I think we'd be well served to loosen up some of the military regulations, until this crisis is over that is, and include some of the senior noncoms more in the decision making process."

Dismissing that out of hand, Ki-Am-Humli shook his head and replied, "No. We are a military vessel and everyone will behave according to their rank. I will not have a Master Senior Sergeant thinking that he is equal to you and I. No, that is out of the question."

Pressing his case, Tuster replied, "Sir. I think you should reconsider. From what I've been told, my people are picking up hints of a possible mutiny in the making. We could avoid that by including some of the most senior noncoms. Even if we don't listen to them or act on their advice, the enlisted would at least feel that they had a say in what was going on. As soon as we are out of this mess, things could go right back to normal without any problems."

"Captain Tuster. I have already considered your idea and summarily ruled it out. I will not allow the enlisted members of this crew to dictate what we will and will not do with threats of mutiny. If we give them sublight, they will steal our hyperdrive. Do you have any duracrete evidence of a brewing mutiny?" Ki-Am-Humli said.

Hiding his disappointment with Captain Ki-Am-Humli's decision very well, Tuster replied, "No sir, I don't."

"If you get anything solid on any potential conspirators, I want them arrested immediately to stand before a judgment tribunal once we get back to the Alliance. However, I think it would be a good idea if you talked to….oh what's his name, the Whiphid that you named Colonel when you left." Ki-Am-Humli said.

"Vazque sir. Colonel Vazque."

"Yes, Vazque. Talk to him and have him place infantry guards on the bridge. I want them both on the bridge and just outside the doors. Just in case."

"Yes sir. With a potential mutiny on our hands, I think that is a wise idea sir. I'll talk to him right away." Valdar Tuster said standing up. He then left to do what he had been ordered to do.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

As the weeks went by, work progressed at a snail's pace. The Rebel Alliance had always been too overconfident in the ability of their intelligence ships to outrun danger and it was assumed that if one of their intelligence ships ever took this kind of damage, that it would have been lost with all hands. Therefore, those in the upper echelons of the Alliance command structure didn't consider it a justified use of expenses to equip the intelligence ships with the ability for their crews to make drastic repairs on their own.

To assist in the repair efforts, Ki-Am-Humli had stripped the bridge crew to the bare minimum required for skeletal function. Everyone who wasn't still assigned to the bridge had been placed on temporary assignment to engineering. The same had been done with every other area of the ship. Only Empire's End's infantry compliment had remained untouched and this was because if a mutiny came, the infantry would be needed to quell it. Ki-Am-Humli and Tuster both agreed that it would be best to try and prevent the infantry becoming corrupt with the mutineer mindset.

In their personal quarters, or what some were jokingly referring to as mutiny headquarters, Tem-Esay, Tasook, and Willat Tamber met with Han Respar, who was a Corellian engineer, Nasow, the Tagorian nurse, and Feltin Wymar, a Gotal gunner. All of them enlisted members of the crew and all of them unhappy with the status quo.

"We've got the majority of the engineers with us." Han said to the others.

"Good. Good." Tem-Esay said, in pleasure radiating in his voice. He then looked to Nasow and asked, "Nasow? Are you still ok with you you'll have to do, if it comes down to it?"

Hesitantly, the nurse nodded her head and answered, "Yes. I don't like it, but I can and will do it."

The three-eyed Gran looked to Feltin and asked, "How many do we have total? What percent of the available enlisted personnel are with us."

Feltin Wymar answered, "Approximately seventy-five percent."

Tem-Esay nodded his head in approval and answered, "Good, good. That's encouraging. It's good to know that we have that kind of support in overthrowing the officers."

"But, you are still meeting with Ki-Am-Humli tomorrow right? I mean if we can achieve our ends without bloodshed, that is the way to go." Willat said.

"Oh, of course. Tasook and I are meeting with him and Tuster first thing in the morning." Tem-Esay answered.

Tasook cocked his head to the side in confusion and said, "I'm coming with you? I didn't know that. Please tell me that we have an audience with them, that we are expected."

The mutineer leader shrugged and answered matter of factly, "No Tasook. They don't know we are coming. If they did, they would have a hundred reasons to refuse our demands prepared and we'd be out of there before we could take our first breath of officer only air. We will show up there, hopefully before they finish taking breakfast in Humli's private bridge office. I figure, if anything, they will offer us a fruit slice or something just to be polite and that will give us time to make our case."

"Do you think your meeting with the Captain will do any good?" Feltin asked Tem-Esay.

"I doubt it. I really doubt it. That's why I say that we need to be ready to put things into action the second that Tasook and I walk out of there."

The next morning, Ki-Am-Humli and Valdar Tuster were eating a breakfast of Nerf steak and Biagellen fruit slices in the Captain's private office. One of the many advantages to being part of a ship's command staff is that it there is a private stock of food that is even better than what junior officers eat. An enlisted human infantryman knocked on the door and entered.

Saluting, the infantryman said crisply, "Sir. Tem-Esay and Tasook would like a moment of your time to address grievances that they claim that the enlisted men have against the officers."

Captain Ki-Am-Humli rolled his eyes, glanced at his deputy and groaned, "Here we go." Then turning his attention to the guard said, "Have them come in please."

After the guard left, but before the two conspirators could enter, Ki-Am-Humli looked at Tuster and said, "Remain seated. These guys think they are becoming hotshots and I want them to know who is who in this meeting. If we come to our feet, it grants them a measure of respect and equality. On the same token, I'm going to keep them standing while they are here. We are going to keep eating while we talk to them, but we are not going to so much as offer them a slice of Biagellen."

Disagreeing with the way his superior had decided to treat the enlisted crewmembers, Tuster just nodded his acknowledgement. He felt for the enlisted crewmembers. Valdar himself had once been enlisted. Long before the Battle of Yavin, Tuster had been a sergeant when a large force of Rebel soldiers were sent to Mimban on an ill-fated mission to destroy the five Imperial mining towns. Tuster assumed command after everyone above him had been killed and got the survivors off planet to safety. This not only earned him the Alliance's highest medal for valor but also his permanent commission. So he understood where the enlisted crewmembers were coming from and would have liked to have found a compromise to solve the dispute.

When Tem-Esay and Tasook walked in, Ki-Am-Humli had just put another bite of Nerf steak in his mouth and was theatrically savoring the taste and intentionally ignoring the two enlisted representatives.

Finally, when his mouth was again empty, the Captain looked at his two callers and asked with just a touch of menace in his voice, "And what can I do for you?"

Being the highest ranking of the two enlisted men reporting, Tem-Esay saluted formally and said, "I'd like to thank the Captain for seeing us sir."

Waving away the salute, Ki-Am-Humli said, "Lets cut the Bantha droppings. I know why you are here, you know why you are here, so let's get to it."

Taken aback by the lack of respect that his Captain was giving him, Tem-Esay said more than a little uneasily, "Well, uh, sir. We, the enlisted personnel of Empire's End feel that due to our current circumstances, we should be given more of a say in the setting of shipboard priorities."

"Is that all?" Ki-Am-Humli asked as he put another slice of Biagellen in his mouth and as Valdar Tuster sat next to him looking very uneasy with the situation.

With a look of confusion on his face, Tem-Esay answered hesitatingly, "Well. Yes sir. Just a say is all we want." He paused and then said with more confidence, "We feel that the pretense that we are still a man-of-war should be dropped. Although we don't know who won, the war is over. We are stranded here without anyway to let anyone know we are here. We feel that we need to move on, the best we can, given what we have to work with."

Ki-Am-Humli waited until he emptied his mouth and then asked, "So…you are saying that we should drop everyone's rank?" He then put placed another bite of Nerf steak in his mouth.

"Yes sir." Tem-Esay answered.

After his mouth was again emptied, Ki-Am-Humli followed up by asking, "And you think that an infantry private can lead a ship as well as an experienced Captain?"

With his confidence fully back, Tem-Esay answered, "Perhaps sir. Sir, we fought for a Republic. Given our current circumstances, it is very possible that we will never see the Republic that we fought to win, that's if we did win. We feel that those who lead us should be elected."

Swallowing another bite of his breakfast, Ki-Am-Humli asked, "Is that so?"

Unsure of exactly what the Captain meant with the question, Tem-Esay answered, "Yes sir."

Ki-Am-Humli shook his head and flatly said, "No."

"Sir?" Tem-Esay asked questioningly.

Conversationally the Captain repeated, "No. Now you are dismissed."

Without saying another word and without bothering to salute, they left the Captain's private office.

When they were gone, Humli looked at Tuster and calmly said, "Tell Vazque to be ready for trouble at any time."

Having received her mutinous orders, but deep down not wanting to carry them out, Nasow stood over the motionless, almost lifeless looking, body of Captain Trebek. Against her better judgment, the Togorian placed her hand on the Captain's throat and began massaging it.

Once she had worked up the courage to do it, Nasow placed her fingertips on Trebek's throat and her claws shot out of them and sank their full length into the Captain's neck. She then yanked her hand around, doing a through job of making the injury beyond the 21B medical droids' ability to repair. She then pulled her claws out of the now deceased Captain's throat. When she retracted her claws back into her fingers, chunks of gory meat fell to the floor.

Doctor Nouden, the Ithorian ship's doctor, had seen what Nasow had done immediately. While she had been preoccupied with murdering Captain Trebek, he prepared a sedative and snuck up behind her. Then, before Nasow had a chance to fully realize that he was there, the doctor jabbed the needle into the back of the enlisted nurse's neck.

As soon as she collapsed to the ground unconscious, the Ithorian looked towards the six 21Bs and ordered, "Restrain her to one of the beds. Quick, before she comes around."

Several mutineers blockaded the only entrance and exit from the infantry section of Empire's End. They did so with weapons that Tem-Esay, the only infantryman in the mutiny, had smuggled out of the infantry section over the course of several days. Their mere presence dared the infantry to try and put down their insurrection.

All over Empire's End, the mutinous enlisted men struck out and killed their officers. To avoid word of the mutiny from spreading and thereby giving officers time to prepare, the assaults all happened all at once at a preset time. Engineering was no exception.

Eldet Kembes, unaware of what was going on all around Empire's End, casually browsed their stockpile of communication equipment replacement parts. He was brainstorming innovative ways to restore deep space communications without success.

Prior to his civilian career with Travelex, Kembes had been a professional officer in the Imperial Navy. That combined with his already overall dark mood over the circumstances that Empire's End found itself in, caused him to sour quickly when he heard Han Respar say casually and informally, "Hey Eldet. Got a quick second."

Most of the officers in the Rebel Alliance military hadn't served in the Imperial services and were considered by those who had to be amateurs playing a professional's game. Many of these amateurs were laidback and easy going with those under their charge. They might accept this kind of treatment from a subordinate, but Senior Lieutenant Eldet Kembes wouldn't. He demanded to be treated with the respect that having gone through his years at the Imperial Academy entitled him to as an officer and a gentleman. Scowling, Kembes turned to face Respar and give him a drill sergeantish lesson on how an enlisted man addresses an officer.

However, before he could say anything he saw a quick flash as Han pulled the trigger of his heavy blaster pistol. Before Kembes had time for his brain to realize what the flash was, he was laying dead on the floor with a smoking hole in his chest.

A miniature holographic image of Doctor Nouden stood in front of Captains Humli and Tuster as they sat at the table in Empire's End's situation room. Next to Doctor Nouden stood a holographic image of the Whiphid, Colonel Vazque.

"No sir. Captain Trebek didn't suffer. He was unconscious through the whole thing. It was only Nurse Nasow and myself in sickbay when this occurred. I quickly put her under sedation and had the droids restrain her to a bed. I then activated the emergency lockout of the doors. We are secure for now." Doctor Nouden's holographic image said.

The news of Trebek's death saddened Ki-Am-Humli greatly, but he didn't mention the passing of their former commander. There was more pressing business to see to.

Turning his head towards the holographic image of Colonel Vazque, the Captain asked, "How secure is the infantry section Colonel?"

"We are fully secure here sir. We didn't have any attempt to seize control here. However, some of the mutineers have set up a blockade outside, but we will be able to cut through that easy enough."

Having remained silent in the conversation this far, Deputy Captain Tuster said, "We have to assume that, since you are the only two sections to report in, the rest of the ship is under mutineer control."

The holographic images and Captain Humli all nodded their heads in agreement.

"Colonel Vazque. I want you and your men to put an end to this mutiny. Leave no questions as to who runs this ship. How you do it, I'll leave up to you."

Nodding his acceptance of the orders that he had been given, Colonel Vazque said, "Yes sir. By your leave?"

The holographic image of Captain Ki-Am-Humli answered, "By my leave. Good luck to you and your men Colonel."

"Yes sir." Vazque said and then turned off the holographic imaging unit that engineering had been able to restore to internal ship functionality prior to the mutiny.

Around him, but not part of the command staff meeting were three junior grade infantry officers, a human, a reptilian Barabel, and a rodent looking Chadra-Fan. Vazque looked at them and said to the Barabel and the Chadra-Fan, "I want your units to form up at the door. Set up an E-web in the center and on both flanks place men with flechette launchers. Cut down anyone standing on the other side. If they weren't hostile, they wouldn't be there."

He paused and looked both officers in the eyes to make sure that they were following him. Then he continued, "After they are all dead, I want you to move out with a couple of flechette launchers but mostly blaster rifles and light repeating blasters. I want you to move out into the ship and take out any pockets of mutineers that you fine, but give them the chance to surrender first. Stay away from the bridge. I only want you to engage smaller numbers, to lessen how many crewmembers die in this mess. Once they realize that they don't have a chance, they will give up and we are going to need as many people as we can to get our rears off this ship."

"Yes sir." The Chadra-Fan and Barabel answered.

Colonel Vazque then turned his attention to the human officer and said, "I want your unit to form the defensive force for this area at the door. You will man the E-web and flechette launchers that their men leave behind when they move out."

The human nodded his understanding as replied, "Yes sir."

Vazque then activated the public address system, which engineering had also been able to bring online prior to the mutiny and said, "This is Infantry Colonel Vazque. My men are moving out into Empire's End to end this mutiny. Anyone out there who is not involved must return to their private quarters now to be safe. This is the only warning that you will get."

Then, shutting off the publics address system, he looked at his officers and said, "Carry out our orders. I want this done as fast and as efficiently as possible."

"Yes sir." The three junior officers replied and then left.

Outside the infantry section, the mutineers, for being mostly non-combatants, had formed a passably decent ground blockade. Unfortunately for them, they didn't know what kinds of heavy weaponry the infantry had aboard Empire's End and their lack of training had led to them setting up in the worst possible formation for blockading against sustained E-Web and flechette fire.

As soon as the door to the infantry section slid open, the large, tripod mounted E-Web opened fire so fast that the mutineers didn't have anytime to react and immediately killed a third of the blockading mutineers.

The E-Web was immediately followed by the flechette launchers. The flechette launchers were large handheld tube weapons that launched a canister out of each of its four tubes that exploded close to their targets. Once exploded, the canisters released hundreds of razor sharp flechettes.

Between the flechettes and the sustained E-Web fire, it was only a matter of seconds before all of the mutineers were down without a single infantry injury.

"Move out." The Barabel ordered.

The Barabel's unit stayed to the left side of the hall and the Chadra-Fan's unit stayed to the right side. At the first intersection, the two teams split and ventured off separately on their grim mission.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Looking off at nothing in particular, Ki-Am-Humli sat with his elbows resting on the arm rest of his command chair and his fingers hovering close to his mouth.

Without looking at Valdar, the captain said to his deputy, "According to the reports that I am getting, our fight against the mutineers is going well."

"Yes sir. Our forces have taken losses, but they are insignificant compared to what the mutineers have suffered. We are also receiving reports that they are using a portable holographic imager to try and issue confusing and conflicting orders to our forces. As of yet, those deceptions have all been discovered and their strategy to sow confusion and disorder in our ranks has failed." Tuster replied.

Shaking his head slowly, the Captain said, "Why did they have to start this. They knew their place, it's the same place in the order of things that they have always been in. Enlisted take orders and do as they are told. It has always been that way and it always will be."

Deciding the take a chance at displeasing his Captain, Tuster simply replied, "It didn't have to come to this sir."

Ki-Am-Humli looked at Tuster questioningly. The tone of his voice however said 'You are best off not saying anything I won't like' as he asked, "And how is that?"

Realizing that he'd reached the point of no return in this conversation, Valdar pressed on, "Sir. We've been in a fight to survive from the time that star destroyer hit us. All they wanted was to be treated fairly and not like they are in the hold of a Karazak Slaver's Guild ship."

"So you think that we should have turned control of the ship over to them? Let the enlisted start giving the orders?"

Scowling for the first time since his promotion, Valdar Tuster answered, "No sir. But we could have treated them with the respect they deserved as veterans of the Rebellion. They were taking the exact same chances that you and I were when they left everyone and everything they knew to fight Palpatine's tyranny. We could have prevented all of this by treating them with the dignity that they deserve."

With a humorless chuckle Ki-Am-Humli asked, "So what do you, as champion of enlisted rights, think we should do?"

Tuster was beginning to develop a real dislike for his superior, but he didn't want this conversation to shatter into a match of sarcasm, so he kept his voice calm as he said, "Sir. I think it would be wise to hold ceasefire talks. Truce talks between us and the enlisted mutineers."

With a laugh that dripped with distain, Ki-Am-Humli said, "Are you serious? Truce talks with those who are suppose to carry out the orders that we give them? You been using Kessel spice?"

"No sir, I haven't been. And yes sir, I am serious." Tuster replied calmly.

Shaking his head Ki-Am-Humli said matter of factly, "No. We will not offer them truce talks. We will not negotiate with them as equals because we are not equals."

Ice finally reaching his voice, Valdar Tuster asked, "Then what would you suggest sir? How do you think we can bring this under control if we don't come to some sort of accord with them?"

Ki-Am-Humli shrugged and answered, "Easy. Kill everyone involved. When mutineers are dying, others rethink what they are doing and slink away. Once they are all either dead or have deserted the mutiny, we can get back to business as usual."

"But that's the point." Tuster said, with a raised voice, "We won't be able to get back to business as usual if the majority of our enlisted personnel are dead. We won't have enough people."

Tuster paused and then continued more calmly, "We have to assume that the vast majority of our officers are dead. If we continue this course of action and kill off the vast majority of our enlisted, whose going to be left to do the work? Are you knowledgeable enough to get Empire's End up and running again sir?"

That point seem to hit home and Ki-Am-Humli sat in silence, apparently in deep thought, for several minutes. Valdar matched his silence. He wanted the Captain to have time to consider what his decision would mean for the future of the ship as well as each of them as individuals. As the Captain considered Tuster's point, Tuster himself considered the possible necessity of relieving Ki-Am-Humli of his command and bringing the fight to an end on his own.

Finally, Ki-Am-Humli saved his command by saying, "Fine. What do you have in mind?"

The Deputy Captain cleared his throat and said, "Sir. I think we should institute a committee of enlisted personnel for the duration of this crisis. They can elect their own committee members and the committee will have no more power than any other officer. It will simply be an advisory tool to help guide you in the decisions that you make. Then of course, we will make it very clear to them that when we are rescued, the committee will be disbanded and things will go back to how they were."

Nodding his head, Humli replied, "Ok. Fine, that works. Only I don't want anyone who participated in this little insurrection of theirs to be eligible to hold a seat on this committee."

Shaking his head, Tuster answered, "Sir. I don't know if that is even possible. We can't say with any certainty how many of the enlisted personnel are part of the mutiny. We have to assume that the majority of them are. If we don't include them, the same resentments will just flair up again."

"I see your point. Ok, I'll give you that. No one who held a position of leadership in the mutiny will be eligible then."

Nodding his head in approval, Tuster replied, "Yes. I think that will work."

Ki-Am-Humli followed up quickly by adding, "And they must turn over this Tem-Esay and anyone who has killed an officer over to us for execution."

Unconsciously, Tuster's head cocked to the right as he asked, "Do you think they'll agree to that?"

Humli looked his deputy in the eye and in a matter of fact voice answered, "Those are our surrender terms. None of this is negotiable. If they accept, good, the fighting comes to an end and life goes on. If they don't, the infantry will keep on doing what its doing until the mutineers are all dead. Their choice."

Sergeant Tem-Esay had started out at the bridge blockade believing that the second and final battle would be fought there.

Being an infantryman himself, he knew that those blockading the infantry section would be blown away. Despite what he had told them, their purpose wasn't to keep the Captain's loyalists pinned in their. Tem-Esay knew that the troops would get out into the ship without much difficulty, however, he had hoped that his blockaders would be able to thin out their numbers at least a little.

He expected that the infantry's next move would be to secure the bridge from its blockade. It came to a complete surprise to him when that wasn't what they did.

Tem-Esay had always been a firm believer in the saying that a leader should lead from the front and when the infantry failed to arrive at the bridge, that was exactly what he did. He moved from the bridge blockade to where the Chadra-Fan's unit had one of his sweep teams pinned down. The sweep teams were tasked with going room to room and eliminating any officer who had been off duty at the time the mutiny had kicked off.

When the portable holographic imager that he carried chirped, he had his blaster drawn and was firing down a corridor at the infantry unit along with three more of his men. Six of his men lay dead at their feet.

"Keep firing. We can take these guys." Tem-Esay said as he ducked around the corner and thumbed the accept button on the imager. To his surprise, the image that showed up wasn't one of his men, but Captain Ki-Am-Humli.

"Ah, our exalted Captain. Surrendering so soon? I'm disappointed." Tem-Esay said, his sarcasm was thick in his voice.

"Not quite. I have decided to extend an olive branch though. I'd like one of your people to come to me for truce talks and to offer an immediate ceasefire. If the talks break down then we will return to hostilities but hopefully that won't happen." Ki-Am-Humli said, managing to sound diplomatic.

"And why are you willing to talk now, you weren't when I came to you to prevent all of this?" Tem-Esay asked.

"Because your troops are loosing. The loss of life today has been high. Too high and we need as many of our crew alive as we can. I'm willing to meet with your designated representative to end the fighting." Humli answered.

"My designated representative? Why not me personally?" Tem-Esay asked.

"Because I find what you've done reprehensible. What has happened today, all of the deaths, are your fault and I won't have anything to do with you." Humli answered matter of factly.

"No. You deal with me personally or you deal with no one." The Gran said just as matter of factly.

"Its your call Sergeant. You can continue to allow your forces to be wiped out, or you can send someone, that has the authority to speak, make decisions, and form agreements for you to me. Personally, I'd prefer to end this now." Ki-Am-Humli responded.

_He's right._ Tem-Esay thought, _We've got no chance of beating the infantry. I planned this all wrong and if I don't take this, we will all die. At least now he is willing to talk._

Then looking back at the holographic image of Ki-Am-Humli, he said, "Ok. Tell your men to stop shooting. I'll send someone to talk to you as soon as that happens."

The flickering blue image of the Captain nodded his head and said, "Good. Very good."

Then the image disappeared as Ki-Am-Humli cut the signal on the bridge.

After Ki-Am-Humli cut the signal to Tem-Esay, he looked at Valdar Tuster and sighed.

"Do you think it will work sir?" The Deputy Captain asked.

Sighing, Humli answered, "I sure hope so Valdar. I sure hope so."

As soon as Ki-Am-Humli's holographic image disappeared, Tem-Esay slammed his fist into the wall. _Doesn't want to talk to me huh? Wants to talk to anyone but me huh? I should issue orders to slaughter his loyalists as soon as the cease firing."_ He thought, his anger steadily turning into a rage.

"What's the matter?" A Quarren engineer named Nrin Wayso asked the leader of Empire's End's mutiny.

Instead of answering Nrin, Tem-Esay continued thinking, _But he is right. We can't win this. Even if I were to betray the ceasefire and take out a large number of the loyalists, there would still be plenty more to take their place. If I betray the ceasefire, there won't be any more chances to bring this to a peaceful resolution._

Concerned that Tem-Esay wasn't paying attention to the blaster fire coming at them, Nrin again asked, "Tem-Esay. Are you ok?"

Still lost in his own world and oblivious to everything that was going on around him, the sergeant thought, _I have to send someone to him. I don't have a choice._

It was more of the sudden lack of blaster fire filling the hallways than Nrin's voice that brought Tem-Esay back to reality.

Looking at the Quarren Tem-Esay said, "Nrin. Report to the bridge for truce talks with the Captain. You've now got the authority to speak and make decisions in my place."

Nrin looked at Tem-Esay questioningly and asked, "Why me instead of you?"

His earlier fury began to return and Tem-Esay growled more than said, "Because he refuses to deal with me directly."

"If they offer us a bad deal? Do I decline?" Nrin asked.

"Negotiate the best settlement that you can, but this has to end. Too many lives have been lost already." Tem-Esay replied.

"Gotchya." Nrin said and then left for the bridge.

"I accept your offer of an enlisted committee, but I'm sorry, I can not agree to turning over Tem-Esay or any of the others for execution." Nrin said, his voice unwavering as he sat in a seat in the bridge's situation room.

"You seem to miss the point of this meeting." Ki-Am-Humli said, "We are not negotiating with you. Negotiations were never open. Nor will they ever be. You are here, simply to either accept our terms, or to decline them and seal the fate of your fellow mutineers."

"I don't know how much of the big picture you are aware of here, but your forces are loosing badly. Your losses far exceed ours. If the fighting continues, make no mistake, we will kill you to the last man." Valdar Tuster added.

Nrin sat back and stroked the tentacles that spouted from the lower half of his face for a second, as if deep in thought. Finally he broke his own silence by saying, "I won't turn them over to you. I simply can't. If I do, I'd be living with a death mark. I'd run afoul of some unfortunate accident. What I will do is this. I will give you the names. Once I do that, you will keep my name completely out of it and your infantry troops will effect the arrests."

Humli and Tuster looked at each other, both of them nodded their heads and looked back to Nrin, the Captain replied in a friendly tone, "That is a reasonable request."

Then in a much less friendly voice, Ki-Am-Humli added while pointing a finger at Nrin, "If you leave out any names, try to protect any special friends of yours, we will discover the deception and you will meet the same fate as those whose names you give us. Am I understood?"

Bowing his head humbly to Captain Ki-Am-Humli, Nrin answered, "Sir. There will not be any deception on my part. You have my word on that."

Smiling for the first time since the mutiny started, Ki-Am-Humli replied, "With those words, you have just restored peace to Empire's End."

The next morning, Tem-Esay walked, unarmed, into the infantry section of Empire's End. He confident that he would have a high standing with the other enlisted infantrymen because of what his insurrection had gained for them. He was unarmed because after the truce had been agreed to, the infantry collected all of the weapons that the mutiny had illegally appropriated from them.

He received a surprise to find three blaster rifles pointed at him.

"What's going on here?" The former leader of the mutiny asked.

Colonel Vazque walked up to him from behind the soldiers with the blaster rifles and answered, " Sergeant Tem-Esay. By orders of Captain Ki-Am-Humli, you are under arrest for inciting mutiny. Stand down and surrender."

Knowing that, once again, he didn't have any choice, the Gran extended his arms and allowed his fellow enlisted infantrymen to place binders on his wrists.

Nasow had been sedated many times during the course of the mutiny. Doctor Nouden knew what kind of strength that Tagorians possessed and he didn't want to take the chance of her becoming alert enough to possibly break the four point restraints that held her to the bed.

Although when the sedative began to wear off after the mutiny, she found herself not in four point restraints, but heavy duty binders that were strong enough to hold a Wookiee.

Groggily, she asked, "What are these for?"

To her surprise, it wasn't Doctor Nouden who answered her, but a human infantry officer whose unit had stayed to defend the infantry section during the mutiny. Without preamble, he said, "Nurse Nasow. By orders of Captain Ki-Am-Humli, you are under arrest for mutiny, the murder of Captain Trebek and the intended murder of Doctor Nouden."

Knowing that she was guilty as charged, Nasow just laid her head back on her pillow, closed her eyes and sighed sadly.

The day after the mutiny fell on Han Respar's off day. A few of the other enlisted engineers had killed officers on sweep teams and therefore had all been arrested at the same time while on duty. Han however hadn't know that this was happening. While a larger infantry team moved into engineering to make those arrest, another smaller team positioned itself to enter his quarters.

The Rebels that he shared his quarters with were all at their various duty assignments, so when the infantry arrest team came for him, he was alone.

Han turned to face the door when it opened, thinking that it was one of his quartersmates. He was unaware that the infantry was able to electrically override the locks on any door on Empire's End.

When two humans and a Weequay, all enlisted infantrymen, came through carrying blaster rifles followed by a Chadra-Fan officer, he instinctively knew what was going on and began looking for a way to either escape or defend himself.

Seeing what he was doing, the officer said, "This is the only chance that you'll have to cease movement and surrender."

Han didn't like that option and decided in the split second that he had, that he would rather be dead than a prisoner. Instead of putting his hands out peacefully for the binders, like Tem-Esay had, Han Respar simply charged the infantrymen.

"Fire." The officer ordered calmly.

The three blaster rifles all came to life at the same time, hitting Han Respar repeatedly. When he fell to the ground, he was a lifeless, charred piece of meat.

The arrests were all made at the same time, just as the mutiny had struck Empire's End's officer corps.

Immediately after the arrests had been made, everyone, officer and enlisted, loyalist and former mutineer, went to work gathering up those who had fallen during the dispute. The bodies were brought to rest outside of the recreation deck's entrance, which was still open to space. After the fallen had been laid on the floor, the prisoners were marched in wearing wrist and ankle binders.

That entrance, along with the one to the mess hall, had been sealed off permanently shortly after the Empire's End had been damaged by the Star Destroyer. To counter this measure, demolition experts from the ship's infantry compliment moved in and attached low grade remote activated proton grenades to the entrance and then went back to where they would be safe.

One of the demolition experts pressed the button on his remote and the sealed entrance didn't exist anymore. Instantly, the loss of pressurization in the hallway began sucking the bodies of mutineers, loyalists and officers, including Captain Trebek and Senior Lieutenant Eldet Kembes, out into the vast reaches of space and they became just more of the many debris already floating around the Forest Moon of Endor. Also released into orbit around Empire's End were the living prisoners.

Ki-Am-Humli had issued orders that all crewmembers were to be present to witness this from the safety of the ship's briefing room. As he watched in silence, the Captain thought, _I really don't mind seeing the bodies of the mutineers treated like this. It is better than they deserve. I just wish that it would have been possible to arrange an actual dignified funeral service for Captain Trebek and the others that didn't do anything to deserve death._

Once the bodies had all been evacuated from Empire's End, a team of engineers wearing environmental suits and gravity boots moved in with an emergency pressure seal. As soon as they had it attached and sealed in place, the hallway was once again safe for crewmembers to pass by.

With the specter of the mutiny behind them, the crew of Empire's End settled into an uneasy business as usual.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

In his private office, Captain Ki-Am-Humli met with his surviving officers and Nrin Wayso, who had been elected Speaker for the Enlisted Input Commission.

"So, how do we take the tatters of a military crew and form a society?" Humli opened the meeting by asking.

"Well, first I'd say we have to find a way to compensate for our being blind. The sensor arrays and suites are beyond repair. They're simply beyond our means to repair without a gravity dock. That means that there are a lot of battle debris floating around with us, some of it pretty big, that we can't see." Tolem said.

Tolem, Eldet Kembes's former second in command had been lucky that the mutiny had struck on his off day. He had further been lucky in that his personal quarters hadn't been reached by the mutinous sweep teams before the ceasefire. Once the mutiny had been settled and the holes in the command structure had been realized, Ki-Am-Humli promoted Tolem to chief of engineering.

A look of near defeat crossed Ki-Am-Humli's face as he asked, almost too quite to hear, "Is it even possible for us to survive out here? Really? Can we do it?"

Tuster answered, "We have enough rations in the infantry section to last us for years if we use them wisely."

"But is food enough? That didn't answer my question. Can we survive on the wreckage of Empire's End?" Ki-Am-Humli pressed.

Tolem cleared his throat and answered, "Sir. As long as there has been sentient beings colonizing worlds that they didn't come into life on, there have been ships that malfunctioned in transit. There have been civilizations discovered, that thrived for generations onboard dead spacecraft. Granted, they were colonizing vessels, which means that they were better provisioned for such a thing than we are. They also had a better mix of sexes for each species onboard than we do. But, as long as we have food and our gravity as well as our life support holds out, yes sir, we can survive. Maybe not for generations, but we can survive for a long time."

The look of defeat left the Captain's face. Tolem's words were exactly what he had needed to hear. He then turned his attention to Nrin and asked, "Where do the enlisted stand? What do they want to see happen immediately?"

"Sir, we want to loose the military command structure. We want an elected government. We've been fighting for a society that would be lead by an elected government, just like the Republic had been. We fought against a dictatorship and we don't want to find ourselves subjugated to a military dictatorship because we took too long to begin the transfer from appointed to elected leadership."

Nrin paused and then continued, "We would also like to see courts established. Many of us are upset over the summary executions of those who had killed officers during the mutiny. Those who are, feel that they should have been tried before a jury of their peers before any sentence was imposed and carried out."

Ki-Am-Humli massaged his goatee for a second and then said, "Ok. So it appears to me that we have three issues to resolve. Our blindness, the immediate creation of a court system, and once we know for a fact that we are on a stable footing for survival, the peaceful transition from our current military command structure to an elected government. I want to start with the most pressing. Our blindness. How do we see what we are at risk of hitting?"

The orbit above Endor's forest moon was a swirling collection of debris, both large and small. If it had any thing to do with the battle it was in the collection, from the tiniest servometer in a mouse droid, to destroyed but mostly intact Imperial Star Destroyers.

Those pieces, large and small, were constantly colliding with each other, like asteroids in an asteroid belt. Sometimes the collisions were far from noteworthy, like the small chunks of metal that had once been part of Rebel Alliance fighters or Imperial TIE fighters that were constantly pelting the exterior of Empire's End. Other times the collisions resulted in quite spectacular explosions.

Without working sensors, the surviving crewmembers were blissfully unaware of the Rebel Cruiser that was approaching Empire's End on a purely random intercept course. The cruiser closed the distance between it and the blockade runner like the Rancor in Jabba's palace closing on an unfortunate soul who had managed to displease the crime lord.

Like the Empire's End, the Rebel Cruiser had been severally damaged in the battle and was a total loss. Unlike Empire's End, there weren't any survivors onboard the cruiser.

After the command staff meeting adjourned, Tolem and Nrin walked together from the bridge to the engineering section. Before the mutiny, an officer and an enlisted man walking together was a sight that no one would have seen. Since the ceasefire however, many things onboard Empire's End had changed.

Both were thrown to the floor when the two small capital ships collided. Still on the floor, they looked at each other with the same unspoken question in their eyes. _What was that?_

Without a word, Tolem and Nrin were both on their feet and finished their journey in a mad dash.

Skipping the pleasantries, Tolem began barking, "WHAT WAS THAT? WHAT JUST HIT US?", the second that he entered the engineering section.

"Sir, without sensors we don't know. Something big though. It would take something big to bump us like that." An Ishi Tib answered.

"Well, someone had better get me an answer right away. I don't care if you have to climb out on the exterior to do it." Tolem said.

He looked around for a second and then said, "I want to know what kind of damage we have."

A human male, who was in charge of the monitoring boards replied, "Sir. We are working on finding that out right now."

Snippily, Tolem replied, "I don't want to hear we're working on it. I want answers and I want them now."

That was when a human female spoke up saying, "Sir. We have problems."

Tolem walked as fast as he could to her board and leaning over her shoulder asked, "What kind of problems?"

She answered, "Life support sir. Whatever hit us, hit us hard enough to cause a decrease in our life support. According to this reading, it hasn't stopped going down."

In shock, Tolem said to himself, "We are loosing life support."

"Yes sir." The female engineer answered, even though she knew it was unnecessary.

Tolem stood erect and announced, "I want everyone that isn't already assigned to something equally critical to drop what they are doing and get to work on stopping the decrease in life support and to restoring it to its previous level."

"Sir." The human male said standing behind Tolem, "We don't have what we need to do that. It was never part of our equipment stores."

Tolem turned to face him and asked, "Do you enjoy breathing?"

"Yes sir." The human answered.

"Then get it fixed now." Tolem said coolly.

Tolem sat in Ki-Am-Humli's private office with the Captain and Valdar Tuster. The Mon Calamari was uneasy and it showed in the way he fidgeted in his seat.

"Along with damaging our life support, the collision, with whatever it was that we hit, has left us without internal communications again and either damaged or knocked out half a dozen other systems. Most of which were nonvital. That's why the warning signals didn't go off to alert us to trouble with the life support." Tolem said.

"I assume that you already have people on it?" Tuster asked.

"Yes sir. I've ordered all of my people to drop what they were working on to get this corrected." Tolem answered.

Ki-Am-Humli cleared his throat and said, "Ok. First things first, we have to let everyone know what is going on. All physical activity that isn't related to restoring life support will come to an immediate stop. I'm ordering the bridge entirely emptied, including myself, Captain Tuster and all droids, to get the word out. I want a breath mask issued to every crewmember. On them, I want the air filters replaced with air tanks. Disperse the air tanks evenly between each crewmember. Make sure that they know to save the air tanks until life support is lost."

"Yes sir." Tuster said.

"Yes sir." Tolem said.

Captain Ki-Am-Humli had a sinking feeling that the crew of Empire's End had entered their final moments. Life support was steadily failing and air tanks would only last so long. Inwardly he cursed the Rebel Alliance Command for considering him and his crew so expendable and not equipping them with equipment that was standard on most frontline capital ships.

That being the case, while the rest of the bridge crew scattered about the ship to issue his orders to the rest of the crew, he returned to his private quarters and sat down at his desk. Once seated, he opened a drawer and pulled out a handheld recording rod.

Ki-Am-Humli thought, _We are all going to die. Eventually, someone is going to happen along and enter Empire's End to see what they can salvage. When that happens, hopefully they will be curious enough about this recording to take a look at it. I want everyone to know what happened here._

Then, into the recording rod he said, "I'm Ki-Am-Humli of the Rebel Alliance. When the Battle of Endor started………."

Despite the heroic efforts of Empire's End's engineers, life support failed and all surviving hands went to breathing from air tanks. Slowly but surely the air tanks began to run dry.

Fortunately for the crewmembers, the tanks weren't designed to simply run out and leave the being that was breathing from it to suffocate. The tanks were designed to start regulating the airflow output to a rate that was lower than what was needed. This caused whoever was using it to loose consciousness before their tank actually ran dry, thereby causing them to be unaware of their suffocation. It was more of a mercy measure than anything else.

That is what happened to the crew of Empire's End. The larger species, which needed a higher oxygen intake to survive, such as Wookies, Ithorians, and Whiphids were the first to succumb. They were followed shortly afterwards by the mid-sized species, Twi'leks, Sullustans, and humans. After the mid-sized species were in the blissful ignorance of unconsciousness, it wasn't long at all until the smaller species, such as Ugnaughts, Chadra-Fans, and Toydarians went the way of their larger crewmembers.

Finally all that were aware of just how dire Empire's End's situation was were the ship's droids.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

The Sandcrawler was actually a salvaged, refurbished and modified Trade Federation Droid Control Ship, which belonged to the Space Jawas Salvage Corporation. It's Captain was a dangerous looking human from Nar Shaddaa named Kerr Velius. Kerr was taller and more muscular than most humans. He had a shaved head and on his face he wore a jet black goatee. On the left side of his face was a scar, from a salvaging accident, that ran from his chin to half way up his forehead. Even though he was a very friendly and outgoing man, these features combined made most sentient beings desire nothing more than to keep their distance from him.

Kerr Velius's grandfather, Felnun Velius, had owned a junkshop on Nar Shaddaa that barely made enough money for him to feed his family. The reason for this, was that Felnun was limited to selling whatever he could find on Nar Shaddaa, just like everyone other junkshop on the spaceport moon did. At the onset of the Clone Wars, Felnun saw the opportunity to raise his family's standard of living and perhaps even become somewhat prosperous.

Felnun put his family's future in the pot and took a gamble at improving their future by taking a loan from Sella the Hutt, who was a minor Hutt on Nar Shaddaa, but was equally as vicious as any other Hutt.

Felnun then took the loan money and bought a mid-size freighter, modified it for small salvage operations and hired a small crew out of the many starving and homeless citizens of Nar Shaddaa, who would be happy to work for whatever he offered to pay them. He then discovered as many locations were the Republic and the Confederacy faced each other as he could and took his freighter and crew to all of them.

Early on, Felnun's operation was pretty primitive because with the small loan that Sella had given him, he wasn't able to buy all of the tools necessary. That being the case, his crew wasn't able to salvage entire ships, instead, they had to disembark their freighter, fly over to the ship that they were salvaging with rocket packs, take a part they wanted, fly back to the freighter, stow it and fly back to the salvage site for another part.

Piece by piece they cannibalized Republic, Confederate and privately owned ships. If they found it dead in space, they considered it their right as citizens of first the Republic and then the Empire to take whatever they wanted. It was slow, much slower than some of the larger salvage operations, and painstaking work, but it worked. Felnun Velius's junkshop became known for selling items that were hard to find not only on Nar Shaddaa, but in all of Hutt Space and it quickly became the most prosperous junkshop in that shady corner of known space.

Felnun's son, and Kerr's father, Renus Velius, grew up and eventually took over the family business. In his tenure, Renus not only sold what they salvaged in the family's Nar Shaddaa junkshop, but also sold parts to junkshop owners on a hundred worlds, which further increased the family's wealth.

On his first trip to Tatooine, Renus met some Jawas and was truly impressed with how they did their business. After that meeting, members of his crew began joking about how they were like Space Jawas, and liking the name, he changed the name of the family business to Space Jawas Salvage Corporation. A year later, Renus sold the junkshop on Nar Shaddaa and the freighter that Felnun had bought and bought a Trade Federation Droid Control Ship. He restored it to functionality and modified it to be highly effective in deep space salvage operations. In keeping with his business's Space Jawas name, Renus named his new ship The Sandcrawler.

The Sandcrawler added to the family's wealth by not only giving them a highly increased amount of storage pace for parts, but the ability to tractor fighters, yachts, and other smaller stricken spacecraft into it, where they could either remove any parts they wanted and then kick the donor ship back out into space, or, if it was repairable, repair it and sell it to one of the many used spacecraft dealers in known space in the comfort of gravity. The Sandcrawler was even capable of towing one, structurally sound, capital ship through hyperspace.

By the Battle of Endor, an aging Renus still ran Space Jawas Salvage Corporation, but did so from his luxurious living accommodations on Nar Shaddaa. His son, the grandson of Felnun Velius, Kerr managed the actual salvage operations.

The Sandcrawler arrived in the Endor System within hours of the last Imperial and Republic spacecraft pulling out. The battle had been a major one and they were happy to take the time to go ship to ship because the aftermath major battles meant a lot of credits for the Space Jawas Salvage Corporation.

"Ho Ho. Look at this one Boss." The Weequay sensor operator said.

Kerr came to the sensor operator's side and whistled. He then said, "A Rebel Blockade Runner. The weapons on that baby alone would turn a profit on this trip."

He then hit the overhead address system and announced, "Big beauty dead ahead. Salvage teams to shuttles for immediate launch." With that said, Kerr himself went to the shuttle bay and suited up.

The Space Jawas Salvage Corporation also employed several fighter pilots to protect against pirates, other salvage companies, and whoever else might want to steal a salvage claim from them. Their fighters also came in handy when it came to stealing large claims from other salvage companies. The corporation's motley assortment of refurbished fighters accompanied the boxy shuttles.

The three shuttles landed on Empire's End and the pilots engaged the docking clamps, to hold the shuttles in place. Then, one crewmember from each shuttle exited and cut a hole into the larger ship. Once the holes were cut, they extended the shuttles' boarding shoots, which allowed the crew to board Empire's End and load their salvage onto the shuttles without any major depressurizations, which would place the crewmembers and their new cargo in danger.

Once the boarding shoots were in place, the crews got to work.

The sight that greeted Kerr upon entering Empire's End were the motionless bodies of it's crew spread out where they fell and still wearing their breath masks.

"Look at them." A large, reptilian Trandoshan standing next to him said.

"Yeah, tough for them. That's a bad way to go, but there isn't anything we can do for them. So lets keep focused. Make sure we get those breath masks. I want anything we can use or sell." Kerr replied.

"Of course Boss. It's not like you just hired me. I know what to strip and what to leave." The Trandoshan said leaning over the body of a motionless Bothan. Looking at the air tank's regulator, he thought, _Sithspawn. There's still air in here._ He then reached down and felt for the Bothan's pulse.

Eyes wide, the Trandoshan exclaimed, "BOSS! This ones alive."

"What?" Kerr asked, not sure if he had heard the Trandoshan right.

"This one is alive." The Trandoshan repeated.

"EVERYONE! CEASE OPERATIONS! GET ALL OF THESE GUYS TO THE SANDCRAWLER NOW! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM! EVERYONE NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE ON THIS SHIP!" Kerr ordered loudly.

Ki-Am-Humli had laid unconscious on a bed in The Sandcrawler's infirmary for two weeks when his eyes finally opened.

Looking around, he saw a Gungan doctor and knew that he wasn't on the Empire's End any longer, because they didn't have any Gungan doctors.

The doctor saw that his eyes were open, came over to him and said, "Yousa stay right there. Wesa bea right with yousa." He then walked out of Ki-Am-Humli's sight.

Minutes later, Kerr walked up to his bed and introduced himself, "Captain Ki-Am-Humli. I'm Captain Kerr Velius of The Sandcrawler. We brought you and all of your crewmembers over here and began administering medical treatment, which I'm sure the Rebel Alliance will be willing to compensate us for. Correct?"

Ignoring the financial questions, Ki-Am-Humli replied weakly, "Thank you. Are…are all of my people ok?"

Kerr shook his head sadly and answered, "We weren't able to save any of your larger crewmembers. They were gone by the time we found you. Most of your medium sized crewmembers and all of your smaller crewmembers made it though."

The news of his further losses didn't sadden Ki-Am-Humli, at least not yet anyway. There had been so many deaths among his crew since the Battle of Endor that he expected the death of crewmembers on almost a daily basis and had become almost numb towards it. He was happy however to learn that a good many survived to be rescued.

Ki-Am-Humli looked up at Kerr and asked weakly, "Who won the war?"

Kerr smiled broadly and answered, "You did."

Ki-Am-Humli smiled weakly and fell asleep.


End file.
